2014: A Recap

     A LOT of things happened in 2014.  I can probably only remember a few of them.  But I doped the girls up with hot chocolate and sent them out to play, so this is my chance to roll out a blog post!

[JANUARY]

• I started making our bed.  This may not seem noteworthy, but seriously, at the age of 27, I started consistently making my bed for the first time ever in life.  I don't do a fancy job or anything, but I pull the covers up and arrange our seven(!) pillows.  And no, they aren't even decorative.  We seriously use 7 pillows.  And by "we," I mean that only 2 of those are mine. My bed-making friends were right-- when you look at a bed that is made up, it makes you feel like one small sliver of your life is in order.  I really recommend it.  
• Dave and I rang in our fourth anniversary by going skydiving.  It was actually really fun, and I'll never do it again.
• I got a tattoo for my birthday.  I have been reminded by friends that I shall now never be a success in the corporate world, but that's not really a huge shock at this point.  I am now conflicted as to how I can convince my kids one day to leave their beautiful skin alone forever.  
  

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1)

[FEBRUARY]

• It's a good thing I got all of those reckless behaviors out of the way in January, because in February, we got knocked up.  
• We converted (Piper) to a big girl bed.  It went better than it looks.
  
• We went to the Houston Rodeo.
  

[MARCH]

• I started eating embarrassing amounts of Totino's Party Pizzas.  Thanks, pregnancy.

[APRIL]

• I'm sure something happened in April...

[MAY] 

• Mother's Day at Church: Apparently there are a few photobooth images of my kids smiling.
  
  
  
  
• Piper turned 2! (*tear*)

[JUNE, JULY]

• Constant sunscreen and perspiration.  Girls took swim lessons.  Piper once told her teacher to "please shut up."  I tried not to die of embarassment.

[AUGUST]

• Family trip to Port Aransas.  As you can see, I was already huge.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

[SEPTEMBER]

• September definitely occurred this year...

[OCTOBER]

• We visited a church's pumpkin patch to witness the hilarity of a photo attempt with my girls.
  

[NOVEMBER]

• This little guy arrived!  Hearts exploded. 
  

[DECEMBER]

• Myla turned 4.  Gah!
• We celebrated Jesus!  I tried in vain to have a Christmas without Santa, but the girls kept asking about when he was coming.  Darn Netflix shows (that I let them watch).  I made a mental note to make a better game plan for next year regarding how to address the questions and not have my girls ruin it for other kids.  I really want to remain on speaking terms with the rest of my family!  

     Thank you, Lord, for another year.  Help us not to waste the next one.  Grow us into better followers of you.  In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Road Trip Pit Stop: An Excerpt

     As much as I mentioned how successful our trip was, I still think back and chuckle at some of the things that took place.  For example, here is the breakdown of a lunch stop at Chili's that we both considered a decent stop:

• 11:00am: Arrive at Chili's.  Dave takes girls to get a table and place orders while I stay in the car to feed Jon David.
• 11:20am: I take baby into the restaurant and stop by the table to set his car seat down.  I then head straight to the restroom to change him.  
• 11:24am: Drop baby back off at table with Dave and head to the restroom so I can actually use it.
• 11:25am: Food arrives.  Shove some soup and boneless buffalo wings into face while constantly replacing dropped pacifier.  Try to convince girls that the cinnamon apples taste good.
• 11:30am: Dave has finished his salad, so I pass the baby across the table to him so he can have some time out of his car seat.
• 11:35am: Take daughter to use restroom.  Stand there waiting for 10 minutes while she takes her sweet time pooping.
• 11:45am: Take other daughter to restroom.  Just pee this time. Whew!  Use bathroom myself once more before hitting the road again.
• 11:47am: Dave visits restroom one last time.
• 11:49am: Do a quick diaper check, load back up, and hit the road.

     And that, my friends, is why we only do this once per year.

(No, this photo has nothing to do with the post).

The Great Northward Journey

     When Jon David hit the ripe old age of 13 days, we packed up and headed to visit Dave's side of the family.  (The last time we did this trip with a newborn was when Myla was a couple weeks old.  It went off without a hitch despite the emotional breakdown I had the night before we left about how "I don't know if I want to take this trip, but it's really important to Dave, and I haven't even had time to vacuum!").

     We had tentatively planned to take this trip once I had the baby, but we waited to determine whether Jon David would be a sleepy car baby like Myla, or a pissed-off one like Piper was, God bless her.  Everything went great, and I didn't even have an anxiety attack before we left this time.  We caravanned most of the way to our first destination with Dave's mom and cousin, and the ride went about as well as it possibly could have.  I mean, it was a true gift from God how well everyone fared.  The kids did some movie watching, and some of this:

and this:

and more of this:

     We left at about 3:30am on day 1, which seems to be a good pattern for us.  It's much easier for us to recover from one early morning than to drive through the night and be able to function well the next day. The baby feeding stops gave Dave and the girls time to burn off some energy (and for us to use all of our energy taking everyone potty and wiping all of the butts). 

     Our first stop was in Chicago.  The 5 of us visited with Dave's friends from high school, and y'all, those guys and their families are such gems.  We gave them maybe 2 days' notice, and one of them ordered us dinner while the other hosted all of us so we could avoid hitting up a restaurant with 6 kids total.  Praise Him.  We only stayed one night in Chicago and decided to have a mini-vacation day with just our little family before heading to Wisconsin.  Dave wanted to take us to the aquarium.  Everything was great until we arrived and so did the snowy, windy weather.  Honestly, the weather wasn't bad at all for native mid-Westerners, but there was quite a long walk from parking to the aquarium.  I was feverishly trying to decide how we should transport our 3 kids to the front door with only a single umbrella stroller and one baby carrier.  The Field Museum had a long, covered walkway with a driveway in front, so Dave pulled into that area so we could decide what to do.  While we temporarily parked there, baby became starving, Piper peed in her pants, and I started crying because I thought everyone would wonder why I had this baby out in this weather, and DID I WANT HIM TO DIE OF PNEUMONIA OR SOMETHING??  I was stress paralyzed. Fortunately, Dave made a plan to park and walk in with the baby after I walked the girls through the covered (yet still freezing) walkway into the museum.  We ended up staying at the museum for the morning instead of the aquarium, and it was wonderful.  Bonus: it was free museum day for residents, and the ticket person let us in for free using Dave's old zip code from 10+ years ago!

 (Natural Models)

 That's just her hair on baby's head, no crashing injuries took place.

 (These obligatory fish pictures are for uncle Alan).

     As it turns out, I worried for nothing.  The only problem we encountered with Dave wearing the baby was that those two boys pressed up against each other became somewhat of a space heater.  I literally had to take off Jon David's pants because he was sweating too much.  (Dave kept his pants on.)

     After Chicago, we headed to Wisconsin.  This should have taken about 3 hours, but took close to 5 due to some snowy weather conditions.  We drove at about 10 mph for a long stretch of road, but made it there safely.  Of course I forgot to take any pictures, but we had a lot of fun and ate some home-cooked meals.  We also went to "Praise and Pie" at Grandma's church which consisted of taking hymnal requests and singing them for about a half hour then eating a bunch of pie.  What's not to like about that?! 

     After a few days, we headed to Minnesota to visit the rest of Dave's family.  We had a lovely time, and the little ones got to spend some quality time with some special people including their cousins and Granny & Pop Pop. 

 Isn't this just precious?

      Grammy did a typical grandparent thing and bought these over-the-top princess dresses for dress-up time! 

 We also did a little bit of movie watching:

 and snow playing:

 (Notice how I took this photo from the safety and warmth of INSIDE the house).

     Finally, we started the trip home.  Because we aren't able to leave so early on the way back (and because Dave is so easy going with road trips), we took a leisurely 3 days to return.  This allowed us to stop in Dallas for the night to see these crazies:

     All in all, it was a good trip, but we'll still need about a year to recover. :)  Dave's family joked that I should have a baby in the summer next time to make for a warmer trip.

Dear Myla,

    

[Thanks to Joel Gutowsky Photography for the pics!]

     

     Tomorrow, you'll turn four years old, and I feel like you sort of got gypped because we just got home from a long road trip, Christmas is coming, and I just got slammed with the mom guilt of, "Ohmygosh my daughter is having a birthday but no big party, and am I making her feel special and loved enough?!"  I'm hoping that your excitement over the Ariel tiara you get to wear tomorrow washes my doubts away.

     I can't believe you are four years old, especially because I am still too young and hip to have a child that old!  (Using the word "hip" probably seals me firmly into the old fogey category, though).  I am truly looking forward to this year with you, My.  You are approaching this fun stage where we are looking forward to the places we can take you.  If one of us runs a quick errand and decides to take a kid along, you are the best little helper.  You can sit in the car and go for an extended period of time without having to pee.  There is literally a greater chance that I'll have an accident in the car than you.  You are probably able to sit through a real play-- which we will be testing sometime this year!  You are unbelievably chatty and trying out new words everyday.  My favorite thing is when you are experimenting with a new word and using it incorrectly.  Today I got to hear about how "hullAIRious" Piper was being the other day.  My least favorite thing is when you roll your eyes at me.  (Seriously, isn't it too early for this??)
   
     You are stuck in between toddlerhood and childhood, and that's ok with me.  While I could go without the emotional breakdowns, I don't want to see you grow up too quickly.  So do me a favor and stay young forever, ok?

     I love, love you Myla Grace.  Happy birthday!  Love, Mom